“Tonight, one of the things that has to be stressed, which has not only the United States very much worried, primarily is the African revolution. They are more concerned with the revolution that is taking place on the African continent than they are with the revolutions in Asia and in Latin America. And this is because there are so many people of African ancestry within the domestic confines, or jurisdiction, of these various governments,” said Brother El Hajj Malik El Shabazz during his last complete public lecture, delivered Feb. 14, 1965, at Detroit’s Ford Auditorium.
Exactly one week later, the charismatic Black nationalist leader was heartlessly executed at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights in front of his wife, Betty, their four young daughters and approximately 400 onlookers.
At this stage of his development, Brother Omawale was attempting to unite Africans throughout the Diaspora after establishing his Organization of Afro-American Unity (O.A.A.U.) the previous summer.
Having implemented the “back to Africa” philosophy from his Garveyite upbringing, along El Hajj Malik El Shabazz’s global travels he had personally met and formed alliances with “11 heads of state from Africa, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro,” reflects Malcolm’s comrade, Brother Abdullah Abdur-Razzaq, formerly known as Lieutenant James 67X in the Nation of Islam’s Temple No. 7 in Harlem.
Gathering on an almost biweekly basis at the Audubon, the O.A.A.U. meetings strategized the processes of coming up with solutions to the problems they faced.
“The newly awakened people all over the world pose a problem for what’s known as Western interests–which is imperialism, colonialism, racism and all these other negative isms or vulturistic isms. Just as the external forces pose a grave threat, they can now see that the internal forces pose an even greater threat. But the internal forces pose an even greater threat only when they have properly analyzed the situation and know what the stakes really are,” he said.
He continued, “But since the French government, the British government and this government here, the United States, know that I have been almost fanatically stressing the importance of the Afro-American uniting with the African, and working as a coalition, especially in areas which are of mutual benefit to all of us. And the governments in these different places were frightened because they know that the Black revolution is taking place on the outside of their house.”
A couple of commemorations for the human-rights advocate will be conducted Thursday, Feb. 21.
“Pan-African Rising! Resist the Rise of Imperialism and Wars of Re-colonization in Africa”: Special international guest speaker Baffour Ankmah, editor of New Africa magazine, at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church (6 to 9:30 p.m.), 201 Malcolm X Blvd. (corner of 120th St.). For more information, call 718-399-1766.
At the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center (7 to 9 p.m.), 3940 Broadway (formerly the Audubon Ballroom), brother Tariq Ramadan will discuss the “Transformations of Malcolm X.”